FRENCH REVOLUTION
Unrest in France • April 28, 1789- Unrest exploded at a Paris wallpaper factory • Workers upset because rumors spread that factory owner was going to cut wages • Bread prices were soaring • Workers vandalized owner’s home • Nobles were not worry about the riots • Knew that France had severe economic problems • Believed financial reforms would ease the problem • THEY WERE WRONG
French Society Divided • Ancien Regime (old order), everyone in France were divided into three estates (social classes) • Three estates • First Estate was the clergy • Second Estate was the nobles • Third Estate was everybody else (this class was the majority of the people)
Clergy • Enjoy wealth • The church owned 10% of the land • Collected tithes • Paid no direct taxes to the state • Bishops and abbot lived well • Parish priest might be as poor as a peasant • Provided social services • Nuns, monks, and priests ran schools, hospitals, and orphanages • Many clergy condemned Enlightenment for undermining religion and moral order
Nobles • Top jobs in government, the army, the courts, and the church • Many nobles owned land, but received little financial income • Hated absolutism and resented royal bureaucracy that employed middle-class men in positions that once was reserved for them • Fear losing their privileges and freedom from paying taxes
Everyone else • At the top sat the bourgeoisie (middle class) • Bankers, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, professors • The bulk of the third estate was the rural peasants • Some were prosperous landowners who hired laborers to work for them • The poorest members of the third estate were the urban workers. • Apprentices, journeymen • Industries such as printing and cloth making • Servants, stable hands, construction workers, street sellers • From rich to poor- resented privileges enjoyed by the “social betters”
Taxes • Who paid the taxes?
Financial Troubles • France spent more money than it took in • France’s National Debt Soars • Louis XIV had left France in Debt • Seven Years War and American Revolution strained the treasury • Costs had risen in the 1700’s • French government borrowed more and more money • Late 1780’s- Bad harvest sent food prices soaring and brought hunger to poorer peasants and city dwellers
Financial Troubles • Economic Reform Fails- • Louis XIV heirs did not solve the economic crisis • Louis XV (ruled from 1715-1774)- Ran up more debts • Louis XVI- Weak and indecisive • Chose Jacques Necker as an advisor • Dismissed him because the nobles and clergy for him due to Necker wanted to tax the first and second estates • Pressure to reform mounted • Wealthy and powerful classes wanted the king to summon the Estates-General • A king had not done this for 175 years due to being scared of losing power
Estates-General is called • At the end of 1788 it did not look good in France • Riots were spreading • Nobles fearing taxes were denouncing royal tyranny • Louis XVI did not know what to do so he finally summoned the Estates-General to meet at Versailles the following year • King had a three estates prepare grievance notebooks (cahiers) • Convened in May 1789 • Deadlock over the issue of voting • Each estate got one vote so estate one and two always outvoted estate three
Estates-General is called • Estate number three wanted all three estates to meet in a single body, with votes counted “by head” • This caused a stalemate • June 1789- claiming to represent the people of France the third estate claimed themselves to be the National Assembly • National Assembly found their meeting hall locked and guarded • Moved to a tennis court • Took the Tennis Court Oath- They swore “never to separate and to meet wherever the circumstances might require until we have establish a sound and just constitution”. • Louis XVI accepted the assembly when reform-minded clergy and nobles joined
Bastille • July 14, 1789- Over 800 Parisians assembled outside Bastille • People thought royal troops were going to occupy the capital • Crowd demanded weapons and gunpowder • Commander refused to open the gates and then open fire on the crowd • Enraged mob broke through the defenses, killed the commander, and five guards • Released a handful of prisoners • Found no weapons • Bastille was a symbol to the people of France representing years of abuse by the monarchy • Since 1880- French celebrated Bastille Day annually as their independence day http://www.history.com/topics/louis-xvi/photos#
Phases of the French Revolution • The moderate phase of the National Assembly (1789-1791) • Turned France into a constitutional monarchy • Radical Phase (1792-1794) • Escalating violence led to the end of the monarchy and a Reign of Terror • Directory (1795-1799) • A period of reaction against extremism • Age of Napoleon (1799-1815) • Consolidated many revolutionary changes
Political Crisis Leads to Revolt • Political crisis and the worst famine coincided in 1789 • People were spending as much as 80% of their income on bread • “Great Fear” • Rumors about attacks on towns and villages • Rumors about government troops seizing peasant crops • Peasants unleased their fury on nobles • Set fire to old manor records and stole grain
Paris • Center of the Revolution • Factions competed to gain power • Marqius de Lafayette • Headed the national guard- a largely middle-class militia • Paris Commune • More Radical Group • Replaced the royalist government in the city • Mobilize who neighborhoods for protests or violent action
National Assembly Acts • August 4, 1789 • Nobles in the National Assembly voted to end their privileges • Gave up old manorial dues, exclusive hunting rights, special legal status, and exemption from taxes • National Assembly would eventually turn these reforms into laws • Issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen • late August 1789 • Document modeled in part on the American Declaration of Independence • All men were born and remain free and equal in rights • Natural rights of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression • All male citizens were equal before the law • Freedom of Religion • Taxes be levied according to the ability to pay
French Revolution Slogan • Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Women Upset • Declaration of the Rights of Man did not grant equal citizenship to women • Olympe de Gouges (Female Journalist) • 1791 demanded equal rights in her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen • Later in the Revolution women met resistance expressing their ideas, many were imprisoned and executed
Women March on Versailles • October 5, 1789- About 6,000 women marched from Paris to Versailles • Anger directed toward Marie Antoinette • Queen lived a life of extravagance • Against reforms • The women wanted King Louis XVI to return to Paris with them • The next three years the royal family would live in Paris as a virtual prisoner
National Assembly Moves Forward • Largely Bourgeoisie members worked to draft a constitution and to solve the financial crisis • Assembly voted to take over and sell church lands • Placed the church under state control • 1790 issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy • Bishops and Priests became elected, salaried officials • Ended papal authority over the French Church • Dissolved convents and monasteries • Reaction to the church takeover was not good • Bishops and priests refused to accept it • Pope condemned it • Large number of French peasants did not accept the reform • A huge gape open between Paris and the provinces
Constitution of 1791 • 1791 established a new government • Set up a limited monarchy • Legislative Assembly had the power to make laws, collect taxes, and decide on issues of war and peace • Could be elected by tax-paying male citizens over age 25 • Replaced old provinces with 83 departments of roughly equal size • Moderate reformers thought the Constitution of 1791 seemed to complete the revolution
King Escapes • King Louis XVI and royal family escapes from Paris in June 1791 • Got caught and sent back to Paris • To many people this escape by the king showed he was a traitor to the revolution
Radicals take over • European rulers fear the spread of the revolution • Increase border patrols • Fueling the fears were stories told by the emigres (nobles, clergy, and others who had fled France) • Enlightened Rulers turn against France • Catherine the Great burned Voltaire’s letters and locked up her critics • Threats come from different countries • 1791- Prussia and Austria issued the Declaration of Pilnitz- in this document the two monarchs threatened to intervene to protect the French monarchy
Radicals fight for power and declare war • October 1791- newly elected Legislative Assembly took office. • It survived for less than a year • Economic problems fed renewed turmoil • Sans-culottes- working class men and women in Paris and other cities • Pushed the revolution in more radical action • Demanded a republic • Within the Legislative Assembly, factions compete for power • Jacobins (middle class lawyers and intellectuals) supported the San-culottes to advance the republic cause • Opposing the radials were moderate reformers and political officials who wanted no more reforms
National Assembly Declares War • April 1792- Legislative Assembly declares war first on Austria, and then Prussia, Britain, and other states • Would last on and off until 1815
